Saturday, April 30, 2016

Miles revealed on Twitter that his girlfriend Keleigh Sperry had never seen Titanic before they watched it together that day. “‘So, does Jack work on the boat?’ I happen to be dating the one person who has never seen Titanic @keleighsperry,” Source: www.justjared.com

Fortunately for all involved, Max Nichols’ Two Night Stand has enough charm, spark, and chemistry to overcome a seemingly cookie-cutter premise. In a spur of the moment decision, Megan (Analeigh Tipton) signs up for a dating site (Megan has some seriously funny answers for even the most banal of questions), desperate to mix things up and dip a toe back into the dating waters. It soon becomes readily apparent that Megan has been in a state of regression for some time – and, yes, she does yell out, “I’m regressing!,” but that’s not nearly as on the nose as it sounds – and something needs to change for her in a big way. The pair exhibit a crisp, quick chemistry, and their interactions are funny and zippy – just what a rom-com needs. The duo bicker and banter, get high, engage in some petty crime, and nearly ruin a bathroom. Source: geeknation.com

Two Night Stand really gets interesting because it’s not tied down by the dumb, supportive best friend, conventions about dating or the unimaginative premise. With the rest of the film taking place almost entirely in Alec’s apartment, viewers join the pair in awkward, uncomfortable and truly laughable situations, finally bringing the audience into a world they can imagine, one where sex isn’t the be-all and end-all.

Alec and Megan decide to correct each other’s sexual techniques for fun and “science,” and though their sex tips could be drafted from a Cosmo article, the banter is believable and the indignation on either side relatable and hilarious. The casting is commendable — it helps that neither of the stars is chiseled, Photoshop-perfect or suave in manner. Viewers might see a little bit of themselves in Tipton’s awkward attempts to learn to sexily undress and Teller’s college boy solution to their problems. Teller is a fantastic leading man, caring without seeming disingenuous, silly without being ridiculous. Source: dailytrojan.com

Megan takes to the Web for a no-strings hookup: within moments she’s trading nervously chipper banter and cute laptop visuals with Alec (Teller), a similarly uncommitted young fellow who appears to want as little as Megan does from the encounter. A little late in the day, “Two Night Stand” turns into an absorbing dramedy about two bruised souls mustering the nerve to open themselves up to love again. Tipton is sweet and has lovely green eyes. But indie film guys, I beg you, enough with the manic pixie dream girls already.

Teller is an intelligent young actor who’s been worth watching since his affecting turn opposite Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole.” As Alec, though, he seems not quite in control of the residual smirkiness that he turned to superb advantage as a cocky young alcoholic in “The Spectacular Now.” “Two Night Stand’s” strength lies in the doubts and the ambivalence it expresses about the way we love now. Internet dating, Alec admits once his guard is down, is “a bunch of people sitting around in the dark, texting.” Source: variety.com

For all the romances the movies have given us, there are precious few that show two people gradually falling in love. Contemporary rom-coms generally engineer a movie-long feud that builds to a climactic smooch; Nicholas Sparks-style weepies go for insta-passion shorthand, the better to clear the way for whatever ludicrous tragedy its lovers have in store. And that makes sense, really, as the realistic alternative—with ardent feelings accumulating bit by bit over time, in a context devoid of manufactured conflict—seems like it would be too politely dull to endure. All the same, that perfectly describes Brief Encounter, David Lean’s 1945 masterpiece of British restraint and repression, which Criterion has at long last upgraded to a stand-alone Blu-ray title. The sheer helplessness Laura and Alec feel, as they lay the tracks toward that rendezvous, is what makes Brief Encounter so intensely poignant. Source: www.avclub.com

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

The Spectacular Now - upon meeting the bookish, slightly naive Aimee Finecky (the radiant-without-makeup Shailene Woodley), Sutter's life is changed and he starts to have real feelings for her. What you begin to notice as the film goes on is that Sutter is always carrying a giant soda cup with him everywhere he goes. And before long we realize that said cup is filled with some type of alcohol.

What makes the film all the more tragic is that Sutter is so down on himself that he feels the need to bring others down with him, and before long he's got Aimee drinking right along with him. Nothing in The Spectacular Now plays out how you think it will... there are a great number of subtle elements at work. Aimee lets her perfect grades slip a bit, but she doesn't spiral the way Sutter does. He's probably the smartest kid at his school, but his issues with drinking and an absentee dad are contributing to a general sense of malaise. He could be a straight-A student, but he doesn't care (it kills her to see him struggle).

There's a love scene between them that is both perfectly awkward and quietly romantic. Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley mesh so beautifully together that you can't help but want to see where this couple ends up in five or 10 years. Their natural spark adds a light touch to the proceeds, and as a result, there's a great deal of knowing humor throughout. The film's conclusion offers no easy answers about their future, but it still manages to convey a sense of hope. This movie comes the closest to capturing the tumultuous, swirling trappings of male and female youth. Source: www.aintitcool.com

Get a Job is a comedy about finding your way through a tough job market, but it’s also a movie that will find very little favor among anyone who has ever found themselves unemployed and looking for a job. Miles Teller continues to play upon his generally likeable personality that makes it easier to forgive him even when the film borrows a Seinfeld gag where he has to borrow urine from his father to pass a required drug test. At least it also wisely chooses not to steal the Seinfeld punchline, instead having Teller struggling with a tube spraying urine everywhere as he tries to fill the sample jar.

Teller and Cranston are quite fantastic as father and son, and they’re constantly the saving grace to a film that never quite finds its footing, especially when it tries to follow Will’s loser friends and their own attempts to keep a job. By the time Gillian (Anna Kendrick) loses her job over an hour into a movie, it’s become obvious the filmmakers don’t know what to do with the women in their movie, as they throw Kendrick in front of a video game taking tokes off a bong, as if that’s what her character might do in that situation. Source: www.denofgeek.us

The suicide rate in the US has surged to its highest level in almost three decades, according to a new report. The increase is particularly pronounced among middle-age white people who now account for a third of all US suicides. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report did not offer an explanation for the steep rise. However, other experts have pointed to increased abuse of prescription opiates and the financial downturn that began in 2008 as likely factors. "This is part of the larger emerging pattern of evidence of the links between poverty, hopelessness and health," Robert D Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard, told the New York Times. CDC reported that suicides have increased in the US to a rate of 13 per 100,000 people, the highest since 1986. In 2014, more than 14,000 middle-aged white people killed themselves. That figure is double the combined suicides total for all blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders, American Indians, and Alaska Natives. Source: www.bbc.com

Shailene Woodley spoke to the audience about her reasons for supporting Sanders and her personal experience volunteering for the campaign. She told personal stories and referenced issues such as climate change and the recent New York primary. She encouraged audience members to vote and to actively participate in volunteering for the campaign. “We have to bring and demand justice back in our country,” Woodley told the audience, adding that this is a “true political revolution that is bigger than us in this room, bigger than Bernie.” Source: www.browndailyherald.com

The Resilience of American Ideals: American exceptionalism is not just something that Americans claim for themselves. Discard the system that created the cultural capital, and the qualities we have loved about Americans will go away. Historically, Americans have been different as everyone around the world has recognized it. I am thinking of qualities such as American industriousness and neighborliness, but also American optimism even when there doesn’t seem to be any good reason for it, our striking lack of class envy, and the assumption by most Americans that they are in control of their own destinies. Finally, there is the most lovable of exceptional American qualities: our tradition of insisting that we are all part of the middle class, even if we aren’t. The exceptionalism has not been a figment of anyone’s imagination, and it has been wonderful, unique among the nations of the earth, and immeasurably precious. Let’s not forget it, or we may end up regretting it for good. -"Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010" (2013) by Charles Murray

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

“They've never cast anyone who looks less like Elvis than Michael,” says Jerry Schilling. “Yet he really captures the inner Elvis. He did my friend justice. He may be the best Elvis of all time.”

The original meeting between President Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley occurred on December 21, 1970 at the White House. Spacey studied photos and news footage to understand that Nixon was “physically uncomfortable in his own body” and listened to phone calls and tapes to understand the rhythms of Nixon’s private speaking voice.

“Nobody looks like Elvis,” says Liza Johnson, director of Elvis and Nixon. “It's harder to look like Elvis in 1955, when he had the most beautiful face, but at any point the gap in likeness is not something you can win.” Schilling had to push the Elvis & Nixon screenwriters to capture Presley’s human side. The movie shows how Presley revels in fame's indulgences yet he's acutely aware of his isolation and is consumed by it. One scene the writers added has Elvis commenting to Schilling about the hairspray, black dye and facial cream required to create his public persona.

“I become a thing. I become an object,” says Shannon-as-Elvis. Shannon says of the real Presley: “They buried him so deep under gold, jewelry and money, flashbulbs, stage makeup, screaming fans.” Once Shannon started studying the part, he couldn't help falling in love with Presley. “He was a deep guy who was always searching for something. One of his favorite books was Siddhartha, which I never would have guessed.” Source: europe.newsweek.com

Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock (1957)

Miles Teller: “I want to play Young Elvis. They’ve never gotten that right. It’s easy to do wrecked, bloated, and drug-addicted. I want to play characters who have the fever and win. It’s harder.”

Miles Teller: Elvis Presley? That’s the one I really want. I kind of look the part. I think he and I look alike and do a lot of similar things well: sing, dance, and I think he played sports. Just gotta make my accent a little more ‘Memphis’. There are a couple of scripts floating around, but I feel they’ve never really got [an Elvis biopic] right yet. You’ve got to see him rocking and rolling, not as this awkward kid. I want to do the Walk The Line version; they want to do the Hairspray version. But hopefully it’ll happen. I just need to find the right filmmaker. Source: www.shortlist.com

Miles Teller

Elvis Presley.

Miles Teller.

Elvis Presley.

Miles Teller.

Elvis Presley.

In "The Spectacular Now" Miles Teller has a strong resemblance to Elvis in some sequences:

Also it's interesting that Miles Teller seems to be a very family-oriented guy, with a playful sense of humor and musical/acting talent. Even in his affectionate photos with Keleigh Sperry (his stunning model girlfriend who is as eye-catching as Priscilla Presley), there is sometimes a similar vibe:

Miles Teller and Keleigh Sperry at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards on April 9, 2016 in Los Angeles.

Miles Teller and Keleigh Sperry at the 'Fantastic Four' New York Premiere, August 2015.

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) was the law that prosecutors deployed against Aaron Swartz, an internet activist who killed himself after a years-long legal battle centered around his decision to mass download academic journals. Swartz was hit with the law after he entered a network closet at MIT and mass downloaded millions of academic journals from JSTOR, a company that generally charges for access. Swartz was charged with essentially violating the terms of service of JSTOR; because the CFAA was applied, he faced years in prison. Swartz ultimately killed himself after a plea deal was rejected by prosecutors. Source: europe.newsweek.com

Aaron Swartz wanted to make the world a better place. Growing up in a computer-friendly home at the dawn of the internet era, he quickly became proficient in programming and coding and began to see all the possibilities that the online world could offer. The computer prodigy dropped out of North Shore Country Day after 9th grade. Why waste time in organized schooling when there was so much else that could be accomplished online? It became a pattern: Swartz later dropped out of Stanford after feeling discontent with the level of academic rigor. Eventually, he also left a lucrative job in Silicon Valley to pursue a career in activism. Source: www.techrepublic.com

David Foster Wallace was Swartz’s favorite fiction writer. He had started unraveling David Foster Wallace’s notoriously dense novel Infinite Jest. “He spent, like, entire weekends where he was mostly working on this plot summary of Infinite Jest,” Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman recalled. “He loved taking complex narratives and distilling their essences.” At the beginning of 2011, in a capsule review of a book about the Toyota Motor Corporation, Swartz wrote that “lean production” was “undoubtedly the greatest human art form,” “with sex running a close second,” he clarified. -"The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet" (2016) by Justin Peters

Justin Peters: -It would be very hard to argue that the internet is more free right now than it was in 2003 in America. The thing that separated Aaron and how he chose to live his life from the rest of us was more sort of a lifelong conscious choice to work against his own best interests. That’s something we could all chose to do. By working against his own best interests, I mean that he was in Silicon Valley at the birth of social web. He was one of the first startups. Before he died, Aaron was working on this project called Secure Drop, which was a tool for leakers or whistleblowers to be able to securely and anonymously leak information. I think he would have been inspired by Snowden and probably would have tried to help empower other potential Snowdens out there. I think Snowden certainly falls in the same line of Swartz and the other data idealists. Source: www.inverse.com

'Mr. Robot' Season 2 Trailer Promises to Change the World. "The truth is, we have more power than they think. The power to take action, to choose to do something," his character says. "Together, we change the world, change our future, and there's nothing they can do to stop us."

It sounds as if Elliott (Rami Malek) will be trying to galvanize potential followers into further action. "Elliott committed a crime in the first season, and we're gonna see the ramifications of that in the second season, I think that drives a lot about what the second season's all about," creator and showrunner Sam Esmail said. "And that's why there's the introduction of law enforcement that was kind of intentionally not shown in the first season, so that opens a whole new dimension there. And really I think the second season is about [Elliott and Mr. Robot] - that internal struggle, what does that look like, and how are they going to reconcile it?" "Mr. Robot" will return to USA Network for a second season this summer. Source: www.hngn.com

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

James Ponsoldt (director of The Spectacular Now) was worried that Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley wouldn't get along after he saw them interact at a lunch he arranged. Teller was outgoing and energetic, while Woodley, though amused by Teller, was quiet and for the most part kept to herself unless she was spoken to. After the lunch was over and the director was driving away, he noticed Woodley and Teller talking in the parking lot - he later found out that the two of them spent two hours talking and getting to know each other. Teller and Woodley became close friends.

The Spectacular Now (2013) includes both Miles Teller's and Shailene Woodley's first sex scene. The sex scene was shot in a single, unbroken take that lasts well over two minutes.

Sutter’s misadventures aren’t always benign, nor is the influence he has on his circle of friends entirely positive. He’s a good guy with a big heart, but, as his boss explains, he “just doesn't have a firm grasp on the concept of consequences.” In other words, an extremely tricky part to play in a movie. All of us were well aware if we didn’t get the right actor, we were dead in the water. Thank heaven for Miles Teller. But the role of Sutter required him to be charming, seductive, sweet, cutting, sarcastic, vulnerable, angry, and dangerous—often all at once. Source: www.thedailybeast.com

Monday, April 11, 2016

Hulu's miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's 11.22.63 released its final episode on Monday, a climax that saw James Franco's Jake make his attempt to prevent the assassination of President Kennedy, get a glimpse at how his actions changed the future and make a difficult decision involving Sadie (Sarah Gadon). While showrunner Bridget Carpenter and the series' production team had to make many changes from King's bestseller, the book's romantic, but profoundly bittersweet, ending was left intact, a rarity when it comes to King adaptations. Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

Miles Teller: "Acting is such a high art, and coming from theater, I know how hard it is and respect the craft. I want to look back when it ends, and say I challenged myself. I wanted to be an actor you always remember, and those who are the great ones. That's just a personal journey that it's just you and your internal drive. The Spectacular Now was the best script I'd ever read. It had all those elements in it. He's a cool charming guy but with a lot of depth. In a lot shallower script, you wouldn't see the problems he's having, or the fact that he's searching for a father figure, and the broken home life that's revealed, and looking for guidance in life while just having that empty feeling. Sutter in the book is painted differently than how I was playing him. I was actually struggling to finish the entire book because I could see my image of Sutter getting a bit warped.

I tried to steer clear of it in the end. But it's such a well-written book. He says things like "I'm the Sutterman" and "Fabioloso" - I tried to work those things into the movie, but I couldn't say them with a straight face. Then a year later it came around again with James Ponsoldt, we met in a bar and had a couple drinks, and I got it I was excited, but nervous about being able to do it. It's for mature audiences even though it seems like a young adult story. It reminds you of your first love, that time in your life."

Miles Teller is magnetic. He's only been in a few movies - and a couple of those we will kindly skip over when doing future retrospectives about him - but in each of them he has been the beating heart of warmth, humanity and - most unusual these days - sheer naturalism. You don't even see Teller acting, he just is the character. Which means those who know him from Rabbit Hole or the surprisingly excellent Footloose remake will still be surprised by his performance as Sutter, the always buzzed, always cool boy at the heart of The Spectacular Now. It's a great role, and one that Teller invests with an extraordinary amount of nuance and truth. Source: www.esquire.com